September 16, 2020

Channel Your Inner Peacock: Communicating Your Worth

AZA member organizations have a long and proven track record of bringing tremendous social and economic value to their communities, but they’ve not been all that great at bragging about it. This fact is probably due to some mix of humility and circumstances—in more typical times (the pre-Covidian era) they have historically been well supported by their constituents, communities, and public and private funders alike. Some were more successful than others, but by-and-large, plans were made, funds were raised, and organizations thrived. But we’re now in a new era—an era of uncertainty. Economies are stressed, tax bases are morphing, and a sudden economic anxiety has clouded over the sky. We play the cards we’re dealt, and our missions remain critical. Given these circumstances, it’s existentially important that we adapt and develop new strategies to communicate our worth to our communities.

Last week, Zoo Advisors facilitated the 19th in our series of weekly webinars covering a range of topics related to the COVID crisis. On Thursday, September 10th, we hosted industry professionals for a facilitated discussion titled “Channel Your Inner Peacock: Communicating Your Worth”.

The webinar (hosted by Zoo Advisors Vice President Zachary Winfield) was structured as a roundtable discussion that offered strategic insight into how to adapt to this new world. Zachary was joined by several colleagues from organizations around the profession to share their insights and experiences:

  • Norah Fletchall, President/CEO at Buffalo Zoo

  • Victor Martucci, Lobbyist/Partner at Masiello, Martucci, Calabrese and Associates

  • Max Pulsinelli, Executive Director of Communications, Wildlife Conservation Society

  • Jill Allread, CEO, Public Communications Inc.

Key takeaways from this session included:

  • Lead With Compassion
    While we’re all trying to remain optimistic and put our best foot forward, this is an objectively challenging time. Many people are stressed and anxious, and a little bit of humanity goes a long way. Our panelists spoke eloquently about the need to be emotionally accessible in our corporate communications. A touch of compassion, levity, and kindness reminds our constituents that there are real humans behind the logo and that we’re all working through this together.

  • Target Your Campaigns
    This advice transcends the current moment, but it’s likely more important now than ever before. We need to be thoughtful about what we say, to whom. The fragmented communications landscape gives us unprecedented control, but also drastically complicates our strategies. The tone, content, and timing of our messaging needs to be customized to a dizzying array of audiences, including visitors, members, educators, students, public officials, community leaders, business owners, and more. Each audience segment needs to be strategically considered, and our messages need to reflect that consideration in both content and style.

  • Family First
    We spend a lot of time and effort thinking how we’re communicating to constituents outside our walls, but it’s just as important to be thoughtful about how we talk to our staff, volunteers, and partners. Our panelists recommended frequent and transparent internal communications to update our teams. This strategy helps them feel connected and bought in, both critically important when we’re all feeling a bit isolated. Share openly, honestly, compassionately, and frequently.

  • Public Funding Update
    Lobbyist Victor Martucci, one of our panelists, shared with the audience his perspective on the near-term outlook for public funding, which many AZA organizations are reliant upon. That outlook is mixed. On the operating side, he felt that resources will be extremely limited. Given their reliance on sales and property taxes, public entities are feeling a cash crunch and potentially looking for reductions. He was more optimistic about the availability of funding for capital projects. Vic also recommended that organizations take a hard look at commissioning economic impact studies to quantitatively demonstrate their value to decision makers in their communities.

  • Speaking of Economic Impact
    An economic impact study quantifies the direct, indirect, and induced impacts of your organization on your market—that’s the money you spend, the dollars your visitors pump into your economy, and the jobs you support. There’s no single more important tool in your arsenal than an up-to-date economic impact study. Public officials and economic development groups—two of the bodies with the largest capacity to provide your organization with major funding—will be extremely interested in exactly what the impacts of your organization are (or will be in the future). Many foundations (and some individual donors) will be won over by an empirical demonstration of how far their investments will reach in your organization. In fact, economic impact studies have proven so useful that many zoos and aquariums elect to conduct them on an annual basis so that they are always current. Drop us a line to chat more about how Zoo Advisors can help you with this.

  • Think Like A Pollster
    Don’t just talk, remember to listen. Ben Lewinger, a public affairs professional who has used various polling instruments to help zoos win public funding initiatives, spoke on the importance of polling in this moment.

    The practice of polling has been forced to innovate, which means barriers to entry are lower and more cost-effective options are available than in years past. Proper polling can give your organization an important finger on the pulse, whether you’re testing messaging or going to the ballot. Beyond that, it’s important to make sure your external and internal communications are two-way streets. Use Twitter polls, hashtag contests, simple two-question surveys in emails—whatever you can do to solicit feedback as much as possible. It’ll help to generate ideas and more content, and signals to your customers that you value their feedback. When you start thinking like a pollster, you see every conversation as an opportunity to “focus group” ideas. Active listening is important in ALL relationships, including with your members, staff, elected officials, etc.—look for the opportunity to listen in every conversation.

Overall, the most important takeaway from this session was the need to think strategically, not tactically. It’s easy to get caught in the weeds, crafting messages to drive attendance today or tomorrow. It’s more difficult (and more important) to take the long view. Develop a communications strategy that’s robust enough to carry your organization into the future, but adaptable enough to respond in an ever-changing media environment.

Click here to watch the full recording of this Community Conversations webinar.

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